d their chairs up to the table.

"This man is stubborn," she said. "You could starve him or beat him, and
it would do you not the slightest good. It would only make him the more
determined to be faithful to Prale. We would gain nothing. We've got to
convince him that we are in the right."

"I object to telling him the whole truth," said the masked man.

"He could do nothing except tell it to Prale--and Prale knows it
already, doesn't he?" Kate Gilbert asked.

"You want to let the fellow go?" the masked man cried. "Why, we can use
him as a sort of hostage!"

"As if Sidney Prale would care if he never saw his valet again!"

"He is more than a valet; he is one of Prale's spies! If we can hold
this man prisoner, and attend to Jim Farland, that detective, Prale
would stand alone. There are not many men he would trust to help him.
And, if he stands alone, it will be easier for us to torment him, cause
him trouble, drive him away!"

"Sometimes I regret that we started this thing," Kate Gilbert said.
"What will it avail us to make Prale's life miserable?"

"You seem to forget--"

"I forget nothing! I know how I have suffered, how my father and others
have suffered. But I am not sure that retribution will not visit Sidney
Prale even if we keep our hands off."

"You're a woman; that is why!" the masked man accused. "You have a soft
heart, as is right and proper in a woman. But when you remember your
father----"

"I am not quitting!" she declared. "I will continue the game. But I will
not permit violence toward anybody, least of all to a poor fellow who
has nothing to do with the affair except that he is working for Sidney
Prale. We can accomplish our aims without becoming thugs and breaking
laws ourselves. I understood that we always were to keep inside the
law."

"Well, what have you to suggest?" the masked man asked.

"Let Prale's valet go, for he can do us no harm. Prale knows that I am
against him, but he can make no move unless we break the law and his
detective has us apprehended. We play into Sidney Prale's hands if we do
that. Can't you see it? We do not want to give him an advantage, do we?
If we use violence or break a law, we do just that. We must break him
down cleverly."

"I see that point, all right."

"I am astonished that you did not see it before. You appear to be very
vindictive lately, yet you did not suffer as some others suffered."

"I have my reasons. I always have hated Sidney Prale."